Sermo survey: 79% of HCPs report diagnosing Type 1.5 diabetes

Sermo's 42nd Barometer survey, published November 6, 2025, found that 79% of the 670-plus global healthcare providers polled have diagnosed or treated Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA), the slow-onset autoimmune form sometimes labeled type 1.5. Of those with LADA experience, 83% said they are diagnosing it more often than five to ten years ago.

The headline number is recognition, not incidence. Whether LADA prevalence is actually rising or whether clinicians are getting better at separating it from type 2 is a question the survey does not resolve.

LADA sits between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Patients present in adulthood, often look clinically like type 2 at first, then progress toward insulin dependence as autoimmune destruction of beta cells advances. The diagnostic separation matters because the treatment pathway diverges: oral agents that work for type 2 lose efficacy faster in LADA patients, and earlier insulin initiation is often warranted.

The Sermo data points to where that separation is happening in practice. Continuous glucose monitors top the management list at 79%, well ahead of insulin pumps at 46% and standardized antibody or C-peptide panels at 39%. The CGM number is consistent with the broader shift in diabetes care over the last five years; the antibody-panel number is the more interesting one, since it speaks to whether HCPs are actually running the confirmatory tests that distinguish LADA from type 2 at the point of diagnosis.

A German endocrinologist quoted in the release framed the diagnostic stack directly: "Access to timely diabetes autoantibody testing and c-peptide testing is essential to confirm diagnosis and transition patients to appropriate therapy."

Sermo did not disclose the geographic split of the 670-plus respondents, the specialty mix (endocrinology vs. primary care vs. internal medicine), or the misdiagnosis-rate figures the survey claims to have measured. The release flags that "recognition is improving, but challenges remain," without quantifying the remaining gap. Buyers of this kind of HCP survey data, pharma commercial teams, diagnostic OEMs, market-access groups, will want the cross-tabs before they act on the headline.

The survey was fielded starting October 1, 2025. Sermo has not indicated when the full Barometer report or underlying tabulations will be released.